


A Box From The Cosmos

by Writeonthrough (Schroederplayspiano)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Future Fic, Marriage, Perthshire Cottage, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-21 12:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6051622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schroederplayspiano/pseuds/Writeonthrough
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jemma Fitz-Simmons is unable to spend Valentine’s Day with her husband and daughter, Skye, a mysterious box in the yard captivates Fitz. Little does he know the box could hold the key to reinvigorating his marriage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Box From The Cosmos

**Author's Note:**

> Written for The Fitzsimmons Network's Secret Valentine Exchange. 
> 
> Happy Belated Valentine’s Day to my sweet Secret Valentine, @yourfitzsimmons! Hope you enjoy ♥︎

“Boom!”

Wooden blocks tumbled down into Fitz’s lap as he sat on the living room floor. Her voice brought him back to the present just in time to catch the stuffed purple monkey flying across his face.

“You saved Jack from the bomb, Daddy! He was going to fall into the shark-invested waters, but you saved him!” Seven-year-old Skye ran up to her father and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “You’re the hero!”

Another Simmons lady had told him the same thing a long time ago. Fitz brought his hand up to caress the place where now both his wife and his daughter had kissed him—pronouncing him the hero. The cheek warmed from his daughter’s love and Fitz kept his hand there for as long as he could, shielding it from the Scottish February draft.

“Can I have Jack back now, Daddy?”

“Oh…” Fitz startled back to the moment and spotted the monkey between his legs. “Sure.” He offered her the animal, “Sorry, honey.”

Skye didn’t take her favorite toy back, however. Instead, she titled her head at him; her long, curly brown hair falling to one side. “Why are you sad, Daddy?”

Fitz forced himself to smile. “I’m not sad, Skye.”

“Yes, you are.” At seven-years-old, Skye had the same knowing smile her mother did. In addition to their shared smiles, mother and daughter also had the same ability to read his emotions at times he rather they didn’t. “Is it because it’s Valentine’s Day and Mum’s not here?”

“Mummy is working, Skye. That’s why she’s not here.”

“Is that why you’re sad, Daddy?” A younger pair of penetrating blue eyes found the older pair and challenged them to a response. When none came, the undercurrent of sadness passed from parent to child. “Because Mummy’s not here?”

Fitz grabbed Skye, turned her back to him and pulled her to his lap. He planted a giant, slobbery kiss on her neck and blew air over it until Skye started laughing.

“Daddy!” The girl squirmed in his lap. “That tickles!”

“Oh, really!” A genuine smile broke on Fitz’s face as he brought his hands to her armpits and started tickling her. “I bet this tickles more!”

“No!” Skye shrieked between giggles. “Ah! Stop!”

Fitz didn’t stop. Her uncontrollable laughter brought Fitz more joy than he had experienced in weeks—months, actually, if he was being honest.

Skye must have seen the realization across her father’s face. She sucked in her laughter and an idea brightened her sparkling blue eyes brightened. “I have an idea!” She exclaimed with an ‘aha’ accompanying it and placed her hands on Fitz’s shoulders to pull herself up. “Let’s go outside and make snow monkeys!”

Fitz tilted his head at his daughter, touched that she remembered how he once said snow angels must be what happened if monkeys ever laid on their backs in the snow. “Sweetie, it’s too cold to go play in the snow. Your mother would kill me.”

Skye reached for his hand and pulled. “Mummy’s not here. Come make snow monkeys with me.” The young girl ran through the house gathering her snow clothes. By the time Fitz met her at the door she had brought him his winter coat and favorite hat and gloves pair.

He took his things from her and then bent down to her. He zipped her coat and wrapped a scarf around his little girl. He held on to the scarf’s two ends, desperate to hold onto her a minute longer. He glanced out at the glistening snow through the doorway and said, “Do you know how cold it is out there?”

The chilling wind blew past Fitz before he realized Skye had kicked the door open. “Doesn’t matter!” She yelled as she ran past him.

Her shrieks, either from the cold or excitement, warmed Fitz from the cutting wind. He scrambled up the path she carved, hoping to catch her before she ran off too far. Wood clattered in the distance and forced Fitz’s gaze back on instinct to make sure the porch door was closed and the cold had no chance of seeping inside. It was then that he saw it: the huge wooden box sitting on their porch.

Fitz stopped in his tracks. He was drawn to the strange box for reasons he didn’t understand. Its polished wood seemed to create a glow around it. It called him to it—igniting an exhilarating feeling he hadn’t felt since his days inventing new equipment for S.H.I.E.L.D. Skye’s joyful shrieks were distant now, almost muted in Fitz’s head as he took one step, and then another towards the enticing box on the porch.

HIs cellphone’s ring broke Fitz’s trance. He startled from the noise before realizing its source.

“Fitz?” He heard Jemma’s voice as he pressed the phone to his ear.

“Hey…” An instinctive smile spread on Fitz’s face. He turned back to their daughter—still playing with the snow. “I missed you this morning.”

“Yeah…” Regret filled the silence. Jemma parted her lips to speak two times before settling for the simple, “Me too.”

Skye’s giggles echoed through the field and into the phone. Jemma pressed the phone to her ear, closed her eyes, and let the enchanting laughter take over her senses.

“Only two more weeks of me working on weekends, Fitz. I promise.”

“No, I know, Jemma. Don’t worry about it. That training the university is giving you is important.”

“I hate it as much as you do.”

“Jemma…” Fitz warned. “You don’t hate it. It’s a world class biochem training conference filled with the top people in the field. You love it.”

“I hate being away from you. You and Skye…on today of all days.”

Valentine’s Day: a taboo topic between them this year. Not that they ever did much (a simple candlelit dinner at home was enough for them). Since they found out about Jemma’s work requirements a couple of months ago, neither of them wanted to bring it up.

Fitz’s hand drifted to the jewelry box in his pocket and patted it; making sure it was still there. Skye shrieked again when she laid in the snow and was shocked by its freezing temperature. Fitz imagined Jemma’s widening smile perfectly on the other end. “What is she doing?”

“She’s attempting to make a snow monkey…although, not very well I might add. I don’t know if she fully grasps the concept of laying still and only moving your arms and legs.”

“Well, if she did that, she’d be making a snow angel, rather than a snow monkey, wouldn’t she? I thought the whole point was to wiggle.”

Making snow monkeys was a highlight of their first Christmas together as a couple. Fitz had brought Jemma to his mum’s house and they had spend a warm winter’s day outside throwing snowballs. Once, Fitz playfully tackled her in the snow and the two struggled together before Jemma won the upper-hand and rolled him over. They shared a passionate make-out session before realizing their wrestling figures had formed a monkey imprint in the snow (if you squinted hard enough).

“Wiggling is the best part.” Fitz’s voice now filled with yearning.

Jemma raised a hand to her forehead at his longing and imagining his future reaction to the box outside. Her hand stayed stationary for one beat, before she thrust it in the air. “Wait. What are you guys doing outside?” Words spilled out, on top of each other, volume increasing with each syllable. “It’s freezing. And the sun is gonna go down any minute. Skye’s gonna get sick. How long have you been-”

“Jem-Jemma! It’s okay! We’ve only been outside for a couple minutes. Skye’s having a great time.” Fitz stopped to listen to her panic settle down, instead he heard her breath catch. He waited for her to speak. When she didn’t, he turned back to the porch. “Hey. Do you know what this wooden box on the porch is? I’ve never seen it before. Is it for work or something?”

“Yes! Yeah.” Jemma finally settled at her second confirmation. Fitz debated if he detected relief in her voice or not. “It’s a box for work and it has chemicals in it. Don’t touch it.”

Fitz’s forehead furrowed. “What is a box of chemicals doing on porch with an active little seven year old running around?” A pregnant pause ensued. “Come on, Jemma…”

“Well—which is why I was concerned about you taking her to play outside.”

“More like freaking out.”

“Fine.” She surrendered, “Freaking out.”

“Jemma…”

“They’re calling us back in. I have to go now.”

“Wait—Jemma—” The line died before Fitz spoke. He let out a deep, frustrated sigh and shoved the phone back in his pocket.

“Dad…”

The little girl’s voice could not penetrate her father’s deep thoughts; he could not tear his gaze from the box on the porch. Why did he chide Jemma at all? It was unnecessary. Skye didn’t go anywhere near the box…Why was he drawn to the box? Did the engineering part of his heart feel a hankering to explore?

“Dad!”

And why did Jemma tell him not to touch the box? Something about the box felt like it held the key to reinvigorate him…he could use a creative spark at work…

“Daddy!” Skye’s second scream succeeded in breaking Fitz’s from his trance. He whipped around to see her short figure waist deep in snow. Feet were running below him before his mind returned from the box’s trance and caught up with the present moment.

The field behind their Scottish cottage stretched out for kilometers. Skye had made it past her playground (which Fitz had constructed himself, thank you very much), past the pasture, past the now-dead raised beds, where she flailed, stuck in the middle of their field which spread over the Scottish hillside.

“Hang on,” Fitz reached for Skye and their hands clasped together. “I got you.” He placed his free hand on her hips and tugged her up and out of the snow. Skye wrapped her arms and legs tightly around Fitz’s neck and torso. “Honey, I can’t carry you all the way back to the house.”

The pair made it back to the feeble path the young girl had carved out. Despite Fitz’s protests, Skye dramatically flung her head on his shoulder and held onto him tighter. “Sure, you can,” she whispered, lips pressed against his ear. “Please?”

An exhaustive sigh expelled from Fitz’s throat. “Okay.” He adjusted her position around him, “I’ll make you a deal.”

Skye lit up. “Really?”

“Uh-huh.” He started walking through the snow. “I will carry you back to the house.” Skye wiggled with excitement. “And—back to your room if you promise to go to bed when I do—At least read to yourself until you fall asleep.”

“Yes!” She buried her face in his neck, squeezing tighter and kicking her feet in the air. “I promise! Thank you, Daddy!”

A simple promise took an hour and forty-five minutes to fulfill. She needed a warm bath (since she was half-buried in snow), teeth brushing, a story, and then another story before she released him.

When Fitz finally made it back to the master bedroom, he had enough energy to kick off his shoes, take Jemma’s Valentine’s gift from his pocket, and place it on her pillow, before drifting to sleep himself… his last thoughts of the mysterious box outside, calling out to him…

~*~*~

Fitz was awoken by a kiss. “Mmm,” escaped his lips. Surprise filled him when Jemma deepened their kiss, rather than breaking away, and he reached for her elbow to bring them closer together.

Jemma responded to his invitation by pulling herself onto the bed and over Fitz’s body. His arms soon wrapped around the small of her back. Their legs tangled together.

Fitz didn’t couldn’t remember the last kiss they shared with such passion. With two busy jobs and Skye, their alone time had dwindled. By the end of the day, both of them were usually too tired to think about anything other than a good night’s sleep.

His fingers found the end of Jemma’s shirt. As he began to pull it up, Jemma broke their kiss.

“No. Wait.”

“Wait? For what?” Fitz’s expression pleaded with her. “What are you doing to me?”

She offered him an empathic smile. Fitz’s disappointment rose when she began to detangle their limbs and push herself up. “You have to come with me.”

“What?” It took a minute for him to process her command. His attention still distracted by the feel of her lips against his.

“Yes.” Jemma stretched her hand towards him from feet away and waited for him to take hold. “Now,” she said and pulled him by the fingertips.

“Where are we going?”

“Out of this world.” she looked back at him with a knowing smile. It widened by the second. “Come on!”

He squeezed her knuckles, “You know, Skye inherited that sly smile of yours.”

“What sly smile?”

“Those Simmons ladies. Always playing innocent to their affect on people.”

“It’s Fitz-Simmons ladies to you.” Jemma squeezed his knuckles back.

“No.” Fitz turned to her as they approached the porch door. “Your mom does it too.” The eeriness of two in the morning seeped through the glass behind them. “Okay, you know it will be even more freezing out there than when you expressed concern over our well-being earlier this evening.”

“Yeah…” Jemma yanked the glass door open. A chilling wind gust blew past them. “I wasn’t expressing concern over your well-being.”

“No?” Fitz crossed his arms over his chest. “Just Skye’s then?”

She tucked her chin into her scarf. “Skye could make snow monkeys all afternoon in ten degree weather and never get sick.”

Fitz’s trembling lips managed to upturn. “This is true. Must be her superpower.”

“Must be.” Jemma approached the wooden box on the porch, which was somehow still glowing, and sprung back on it; her boot heals making small imprints on the wood as they dangled.

“Why do you look so happy kicking a box of chemicals? I’d be more comfortable if you stopped.”

“Oh.” Jemma looked down at the box as if realizing what she was sitting on for the first time. Her fingertips running across its edges. “Yeah. This isn’t a box of chemicals.”

Fitz tightened his hold across his chest. “It’s not?”

“Nope.” Jemma’s smile grew.

Fitz’s brow furrowed. His gaze shifted from Jemma to the box and back again. “You don’t usually lie to me.”

“You don’t you usually play in the snow when it’s freezing out.”

“So…” Chemicals or not, Fitz still felt the strangest connection to the box. “Are you going to tell me about the box in this ice age or the next?”

Jemma let out a deep breath. “It’s your Valentine’s gift.”

“My-” Fitz dropped his raised shoulders. “You got me a Valentine’s gift?”

“Nope.” Jemma said abruptly. She stretched around, brushed off some snow, and reached for a card to hand to him. “I didn’t.”

He eyed the card suspiciously before taking it from her. The beats from her her boots on the wood distracted him and he stared up at Jemma’s glee. “Read it.”

Fitz adjusted the weight in his hips, licked his lips, and then tore open the card. “It says, ‘From, The Cosmos.’” He blinked. Once. Twice. “Jemma…”

Her smile would not disappear. It kept growing and growing… “Yeah.” She shrugged, playfully swaying back and forth. “Some star must have dropped it off this morning.”

“Uh-huh,” he nodded, playing along. “How nice of it.”

“I thought so.”

Any remaining feeling of the cold left their bodies as the couple immersed themselves in the moment. Butterflies erupted in Jemma’s stomach in anticipation. She slid off the wood one inch at a time.

Their faces inches from each other, Jemma’s smile finally faded. She tried to remember the speech she'd written for him in her head. Her lips parted with the words and soon closed, before she managed to say, “You know what? I'll just show you..." Mumbling more to herself than to him, she added, "Yeah, that'd be better." 

Fitz stepped forward when Jemma moved to the side. The light from earlier in the evening glowed brighter in the midnight’s darkness. As he lifted the lid, the warm, glowing light warmed his face.

“Oh, Jemma…”

Mementos of their life together took over his senses. His fingers glided over the items Jemma had thoughtfully placed in the box; each one rich with their history. Memories he hadn’t recalled in years rushed back to him as fingers touched each item; the first biochem project they worked on together, a tie they had once shared, Fitz’s sweatshirt that Jemma had refused to take off after she returned from another planet, a flash drive of the recordings she had made for him while she was there, the menu of their favorite restaurant, the seven dwarf droids which had played a part in his proposal, her unusual engagement ring box which Fitz had designed, their wedding invitation, their favorite wedding photo, sand from their honeymoon, Skye’s first baby blanket, Skye’s first baby photos, seven years worth of family photos…

Silent tears streamed down Fitz’s face. Jemma let them fall, her own tears forming behind her eyes, before outstretching her arms to caress his cheeks. When she leaned in to kiss him, he struggled to keep his composure enough to respond.

“Okay. Um.” Even though Jemma had thought-out all she wanted to say, she shared the same struggle Fitz did. She played with the frays of her scarf. “We’ve barely seen each other these last few months. Either I’m working or you’re working or I’m picking up Skye or you’re exhausted from playing with Skye all day. Lately, no matter how much we’ve wanted to connect, I’ve been afraid that you were thinking the cosmos is pulling us apart again. And I wanted to do something to remind us it wasn’t—”

“Jemma—”

“And I know I probably should have stayed home and spent Valentine’s day with you instead going to that conference. Because nothing is more important to me than you and Skye—”

Fitz stepped closer to her, “Jemma—”

She still wouldn’t let him speak. “And—and I hate all the time that we lost. I really do. And not just today. I mean all of it. And that’s my fault, I know. But I don’t want to spend another Valentine’s Day without you. I just want to be with you. Always, wherever you are.”

“Jemma,” He reached and placed his palms on her cheeks. Their gazes collided. “You didn’t miss it.” As his thumbs brushed across her cheeks, he notice a venerability in her eyes he hadn’t seen in a long time. Love poured out from him and comforted her in a way his words could not. “I—What you did is incredible, Jemma. I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything.” Jemma took a stepped back. Fitz’s hands drifted from her cheeks and down her arms. He tried to interlace their fingers, but she reached down and pulled his jewelry box from her coat pocket. “I found this on my pillow.”

“Oh.” Fitz released her, a blush creeping up from his neck. “Yeah. That—that is nothing compared to—”

The sound of springs from the small box popping open interrupted him. Jemma’s gasp soon followed. “Wow. Oh, Fitz! It’s beautiful.” The diamond necklace sparkled in the moonlight. The diamonds outlined a perfect ring and hung from a simple chain. His handiwork was second nature to her now. “When did you have time to make this?”

He shrugged off her amazement. Jemma pulled her hair to the side and he reached for the clasp to place it around her neck. “Sometime between you picking up Skye and me going to work.” Once the necklace was on, he stepped back to see it on her. “It’ll be a reminder we cannot be pulled apart—by the cosmos or anything else. We’re infinite. Just like this circle.”

“Infinite.” She repeated and then nodded in agreement, allowing her tears to finally pour out. Fitz pulled her into his embrace and she rested her chin on his shoulder.

They held onto each other, holding the other up, surrendering to the emotions of the moment. Winds shifted directions and stars moved up above before they moved. Fitz turned his head to kiss Jemma’s neck, cheeks, forehead, nose, before finally her lips.

The lovers continued to lose themselves in each other. Their kisses instilling a deep love between them; making them oblivious to the cold encompassing them or the twinkling cosmos above them.


End file.
